Kozhikode city was put on tenterhooks for more than three hours after a major fire broke out at the commercial Sweetmeat Street around 11.30 a.m. on Wednesday.
A textile shop, housed in the three-storey building, from where the fire began, was completely destroyed in the monster flames. There were no human casualties but property was damaged extensively.
The exact cause of the blaze has not been ascertained though a preliminary inquiry indicated that an electric short circuit may have triggered it. Incidentally, this was one of the buildings that had been renovated after a massive fire in 1995.
The shop manger, K. Mustafa, who first sighted smoke billowing from the building, asked the 50-odd employees to rush out of the building, thereby averting a tragedy. Initially, employees of the adjoining shops attempted to extinguish the fire, but to no avail as the flames began to spread.
Twenty fire fighting units attached to different stations in Kozhikode and neighbouring districts doused the flames. Firemen prevented the blaze from spreading. Three fire-fighting units of the Airports Authority of India at the Calicut Airport were also pressed into action.
A big apprehension was the possibility of LPG gas cylinders kept on the second floor exploding. But daring fire brigade personnel took these out of the building.
Fire accidents have been recurring in the city for more than a decade including the one in May 2015.
